CVS MinuteClinic to Transition to EpicCare Electronic Medical Record
MinuteClinic, a division of CVS Caremark Corporation and the largest and fastest growing retail clinic provider in the United States, announced today that it will switch to the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) called EpicCare. MinuteClinic currently uses its own proprietary EMR.
"EpicCare's rich platform will allow us to continue to provide the highest quality of care and advance our services through a robust, world class EMR," said Andrew Sussman, M.D., president, MinuteClinic and senior vice president/associate chief medical officer, CVS Caremark Corporation.
Epic – the most widely used EMR in the U.S. – will support MinuteClinic's evidence based model of care and facilitate connectivity with health care providers nationwide that currently use Epic, including many major health systems, hospital networks and physician groups currently affiliated with MinuteClinic. An estimated 274,000 physicians will use Epic and about 51 percent of the U.S. population will have a record in Epic when its current customer rollouts are complete. MinuteClinic's full deployment of EpicCare is expected to take 18 months.
"We've reached a point in the evolution of our clinical practice where a more advanced EMR that facilitates more immediate information sharing with other health care providers is needed," said Sussman. "MinuteClinic is expanding sites and services, having added over 350 clinics in the past three years. As we continue on our path of rapid growth to reach 1,500 clinics by 2017, EpicCare will take us to the next level by offering enhanced connectivity with other providers, more advanced patient portal capabilities, and key analytics to run our practice more efficiently and improve patient care."
MinuteClinic Chief Medical Officer Nancy Gagliano, M.D. expects EpicCare to help MinuteClinic further promote continuity of care with patients' primary care providers, including pediatricians, family practice physicians and internists.
"We've always been committed to comprehensive record sharing, whether it's done electronically when compatibility exists or by faxing a copy of the visit summary immediately following a clinic visit with patient permission," she said. "EpicCare will help us work more closely with physician practices as part of the medical home team, facilitate co-management of patients, and advance our mission to make health care more accessible, convenient and affordable for Americans."
Epic has scored highest in KLAS Ambulatory EMR rankings for large health systems (75+ physicians) for the last 15 years.
"Retail clinics play an important role in community-wide care delivery," said Carl Dvorak, Epic president. "Patients receive the most value in terms of quality, cost, and overall wellness when care is well-coordinated across disciplines and locations so we're glad to have CVS MinuteClinic join the nation's largest network of care organizations securely sharing patient information."
MinuteClinic nurse practitioners and physician assistants specialize in family health care and can diagnose, treat and write prescriptions for common illnesses such as strep throat and ear, eye, sinus, bladder and bronchial infections. Minor wounds, abrasions, skin conditions and joint sprains are treated, and common vaccinations such as influenza, tetanus, pneumonia, pertussis and Hepatitis A & B are available at most locations. Walk-in camp, sports, college, DOT and other administrative physicals are available daily. In addition, MinuteClinic administers a series of wellness services designed to help consumers identify lifestyle changes needed to improve their current and future health, including screenings and monitoring for diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
MinuteClinic medical clinics are open seven days a week, including weekday evening hours. No appointments are required at MinuteClinic and most health insurance is accepted.